Fingerprint sensors for personalizing a man-machine interface and methods for the personalization thereof have previously been described. Machines such as motor vehicles can be operated by a man-machine interface. For this purpose, they may in particular have input devices, for example, in the form of buttons and/or the like. A man-machine interface of a motor vehicle usually has a steering wheel via which steering inputs for controlling the transverse dynamics of a motor vehicle can be inputted. Man-machine interfaces of motor vehicles may also have display devices via which feedback to operating instructions, operating tips, and/or information for a user of the motor vehicle can be provided.
The personalization of man-machine interfaces of motor vehicles so that a configuration and/or an appearance of the man-machine interface are designed differently for different users has also previously been described. DE 10 2005 042 830 A1 describes an apparatus and a method for setting internal vehicle functions and/or devices in a user-specific manner wherein, for at least one user, at least one user-specific data set containing at least one personal user profile of the user can be stored in the memory of an internal vehicle computing unit and/or in a portable memory unit, respectively, the user can be identified by at least one personal identifier, internal vehicle functions and/or devices can be automatically configured in a user-specific manner by the personal user profile, and at least the part of the user-specific data set including the personal user profile can be encrypted and decrypted only after a successful identification of the user, which identification is carried out by the personal identifier. A biometric identification of the user is in particular carried out by devices suitable therefor. The latter have, for example, a scanner for scanning fingerprints. DE 199 41 947 A1 describes operating members for an instrument cluster and a central display, wherein the operating members are integrated into a steering wheel of the motor vehicle, wherein the operating member for the central display is disposed on the half of the steering wheel facing towards the central display, and the operating member for the instrument cluster is disposed on the half of the steering wheel facing towards the instrument cluster.
A drawback of the above-mentioned man-machine interfaces is that the fingerprint sensor provided for personalization can only be used for personalization, and not for other purposes.